Ghost Adventures

These works are literal manifestations of quotes by Zak Bagans, a supernatural investigator and reality television personality on the Travel Channel show, Ghost Adventures. The premise of this show is to prove the existence of ghosts through a series of overnight investigations in supposedly haunted places. These sites, minimal and abandoned become arenas for maximalist projections of paranoia, hostility and fantasy. Bagans and his team proceed to patronize and bully ghosts, with their own over-the-top showmanship. Their macho performance and narration fill in the blanks for the viewer and suggest the possibility of something tangible in the pursuit of the paranormal. Bagans’s militaristic and authoritarian style allows viewers to feel a shared sense of victory over death and the unknown. His language is a flamboyant yet hostile response to the site and it’s entrapped history. I use Bagans’s hyperbole as a template for producing material form, making his language concrete.

"Five Stacks of Death, Dread, Darkness and Destruction" mixed media. 27 x 30 x 30in. 2012 

"Ninety Acres of Property Filled With A Sinister Past" mixed media. 30 x 48 x 48in. 2013